


The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read

by discordiansamba



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 02:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6102289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discordiansamba/pseuds/discordiansamba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it wasn't the weapons his parents invented that caused him the most problems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read

"Hey Danny, can you come down here for a second?" Jack Fenton bellowed up the stairs, causing his son to groan loudly.

"What?" Danny called down, hovering at the top of the basement stairs, frowning deeply. "Can it wait? I was kind of going to go meet with Sam and Tucker for lunch. It's a weekend, remember?"

"Aw come on son, it'll only take a second!" Jack called up, and Danny heaved a deep sigh. Frankly he didn't like going into the lab if he could help it, given that half of the things in there were designed to trap, maim, and kill him.

"Fine." He huffed, heading down the stairs. His father probably just wanted to show off another invention to him- he just hoped that it didn't fall into any of the above categories. Maybe he had invented something that didn't have anything to do with ghosts this time, although the odds of that were slim. In the past without any ghosts around to hunt, his parents used to kill time by 'inventing' a bunch of household items (which explained things like their Fenton Urinal), but they hadn't really touched them since the Ghost Portal had been activated. "What is it? Some new ghost hunting weapon? Or did you invent a new way to make Fenton Toast even faster?"

"No, but you're onto something with the last one there, Danny!" Jack chirped, grinning from ear to ear. "Your mother and I have been working on a special project for weeks now! I just thought you would want to be the first one to see it!"

"But it's not a weapon?" Danny asked, frowning a little. "That's right, you mention mom, but where is she? I don't think I've seen her around today."

"Ah your mother got called away early this morning. Something to do with her sister or whatever, some kind of minor family emergency. She said goodbye to you through the door of your bedroom, but I guess you were still sleeping!" Jack said easily, getting to his feet.

"Family emergency? That sounds pretty serious." Danny quirked a brow.

"Well, from what I gather, your Aunt Alicia's ex-husband's sister has moved to Spittoon for the sole purpose of taking revenge on her and your mother has gone out give Aunt Alicia some backup. You know, normal lady stuff." Jack told him, grinning as he placed his hand on Danny's back, giving it a heavy pat. "That just leaves us boys! Oh, and Jazz, her too."

No, rather that sounds like a pretty serious situation. Danny couldn't help but think to himself, making a mental note to go call his mom as soon as he was done here. "So, what's this new invention then, if it isn't some kind of weapon?"

"Ah right!" Jack grinned, giving his son another heavy pat on the back, leaving the scrawny teen stumbling and rubbing his shoulder as his father went back over to his worktable to retrieve it. "This is the Fenton... the Fenton... well to be honest we haven't come up with a catchy name for it yet, but at any rate, with this baby you can read a ghost's mind!"

Hefting up the somewhat heavy looking metallic helmet, Jack beamed at his son. "Well, not like ghost's really have a mind, but it translates their impulses into something we humans can understand! In other words it will allow us to determine what a ghost is going to do before they even do it! As you can see, it's not quite ready for the field yet, your mother and I still need to find a way to scale it down somewhat." He laughed, clanking a hand against the solid metal of the helmet.

"So it's a mind reader." Danny said, growing a little pale. If that worked, that could present some problems for him- he wasn't sure if it would mean they could read his own thoughts in human form or not, but it would definitely cause him some problems in ghost form. "How does it work, exactly?" He ventured, trying to see if he could get a grasp on what made it tick so he could make sure it _didn't_ tick.

"Excellent question, son! Always good to see your ghost hunting blood get fired up!" Jack told him, his grin only growing wider.

"Y-yeah." Danny stammered, rubbing the back of his neck. Danny didn't have the heart or the nerve to tell his father that while he didn't quite have 'ghost hunting' blood in him, he sure as hell had plenty of ghost blood in him. His father would probably be crushed if he ever learned his son was one of those monsters he spent so much of his time inventing weapons to destroy.

"Well, like I said, this is just the prototype here, so I imagine the field version will work a little bit differently. Right now this baby doesn't really fit on anyone other than me. Your mother tried to wear it and it swallowed half of her head!" Jack laughed, strapping the helmet on. "You just flip the switch here, and bam! It translates a ghost's electrical impulses into something concrete."

"I don't suppose it works on humans or anything?" Danny asked, his hand finding it's way to the back of his neck again. _It would be a huge problem if it did._

"Nope! Tested it on your mother before she flew out of the door this morning, didn't hear a peep out of her." Jack shook his head, the helmet whirring and buzzing not managing to drown out his rather boisterous voice. "I can see why you would think that Danny, but don't you worry, your mother and I aren't exactly going to invent something that the government can use against us! But smart thinking son, always good to see my little ghost hunter thinking on his feet!"

"A-ah, yeah." Danny stammered, growing more pale- it had definitely worked on him, he was trying very hard not to think about anything. "I-I'm just going to go see about meeting Sam and Tucker then, you know, lunch date and all?"

"Are you alright Danny? Your color doesn't look all that well." Jack frowned a bit, for once managing not to be oblivious as he usually was. He was getting some interference from the helmet as well, even though there weren't any ghosts present in the lab. It was true that ever since the accident his son gave off a faint ectosignature, but Jack had his doubts that it would allow the mind reader to work on his son, even if their tracking instruments did generally pick up on Danny. Come to think about it, he really should see to it that they retooled them in order to exclude Danny from their detection.

"I'm fine!" Danny said, holding up his hands, blue eyes going wide, trying to keep his mind as blank as possible, which was a lot easier said than done. "Thank you for your concern though dad! I'm just going to be leaving now! Oh uh, but before I go, just curious, what's the range on that helmet?"

"Ah, that's another flaw we're still trying to work out." Jack said, his frown easing, but not completely vanishing. Danny was definitely acting weird. "It's range isn't that much right now, and according to your mother's research if we actually try and make physical contact with a ghost while this thing is activated, it'll send a powerful feedback coursing through the helmet! Quite the headache!" He told him, reaching over to pat his son on the shoulder.

Danny barely got a word out before even he could hear the screeching noise the helmet let out, causing Jack to quickly rip his hand away from his son's shoulder, as if his involuntary reflexes knew the truth better than the owner of them did. Reaching up to the helmet, Jack quickly flipped the switch to turn it off, the screeching noise dying out.

"I guess it's still pretty buggy, huh?" Danny asked, eyes sliding away from his father a bit. "Are you alright though dad? Do you need me to call an ambulance or something?"

Placing a hand on his forehead, Jack tried to control the throbbing of his head, rubbing his temples. "No, no, I should be fine in a few minutes. Boy, when Maddie said there would be some feedback, I didn't quite expect it to be this bad!"

"I guess it gives you feedback no matter who you touch!" Danny said quickly. "We should probably get that thing off you, just in case, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's a good plan." Jack groaned, unstrapping the helmet and setting it aside. "Oof. Definitely going to have to work out more than a few kinks on that one before we can ever use it in the field. And it was such a good idea too! I thought we could use to determine who Phantom's host was. But if it's going to react that way to touching just anyone, I don't think it's quite ready for it to leave this lab yet."

"Come again?" Danny asked, biting his lip. At least he was safe in his own head at the moment. Considering his father heard his unvoiced concern, he guessed that it definitely worked on him, human form or not. If his parents did successfully miniaturize it, he hoped that he would be able to get a good look at that version too, so he would know when to drown out his thoughts.

"Well, if it's this flawed, it can't really leave the lab yet. Can't show the public an unfinished Fenton Works project." Jack said, patting the metal of the helmet, the dull throb in his head finally dying down a bit.

"No, I meant the part about Phantom. What's this about a host?" Danny asked. "Like, do you think Phantom's possessing someone or...?"

"Your mother and I think it runs a bit deeper than that, but something along those lines, yes. It would explain why Phantom seems more human than other ghosts, why he seems to not be quite as ruled by an obsession as the others. Well, not that it makes him any less vile, in fact that idea that he's taken over some poor human's body to hide away in makes him even more reprehensible in my eyes! Why, if a ghost remains in control of a human body long enough, especially one as powerful as Phantom, it's entirely possible for the ghost to completely erase the human consciousness."

"That sounds pretty bad." Danny admitted, nodding his head. Especially for him- if that's what they thought Phantom was doing, then it would be huge trouble for him if they ever found out. Would they really believe him then, even if he told them on his own terms? Or were his parents convinced that Phantom had been living in a human for so long that he had completely taken over it's body? Suddenly it felt all the more important to keep his secret a secret from the two of them. "W-well, anyways, I have to run, I'm sure Sam and Tucker are already wondering where I am."

"Oh yes, that's right, your lunch date!" Jack said, grinning at his son. "Run along then, Danny, I'll keep working away here. You have a good time with your friends!"

"Right, I will. You have a good time with your... Fenton whatever you decide to call it." Danny said, giving his father a small smile. For his sake, he hoped that they never found a good way to fix it- it might not be a weapon, but that thing was dangerous. After all, if he couldn't be safe in his own head- where exactly could he be safe?


End file.
